While you're definitely able to put together powerful builds in Diablo 4 with just your skills and talents alone, you can take them to an entirely new level by incorporating Legendary Aspects into your gear setup. These unique bonuses are some of the strongest buffs you can apply to your character, so as you explore Sanctuary and take the fight to Lilith, it's critical that you keep an eye out for them and add them to your repertoire.
If you're confused about what Legendary Aspects are or where you can find them, don't worry — we've put together a comprehensive overview that goes over everything you need to know. This includes a detailed explanation of what Legendary Aspects are and how they work, a full list of every Aspect in the game (both generic and class-specific), and the location of each one on Diablo 4's map.
Diablo 4: Codex of Power and Legendary Aspects explained
One of the best (and rarest) types of gear that you can get your hands on in Diablo 4 is a Legendary. Compared to Normal (White), Magic (Blue), or Rare (Yellow) gear, Legendary items drop with extra stat enhancements and skill point bonuses. However, what really makes Legendaries special are their Aspects — unique and incredibly powerful buffs that significantly alter an element of your character's kit. Aspects can either be generic (usable on all classes) or class-specific (only usable on one class), and currently, there are two ways to obtain the Legendary items that have Aspects on them.
The first way is to simply get lucky with random Legendary drops. You won't see many of these (if any) before Level 25, but once you get past that milestone, you'll start seeing the occasional Legendary drop from Elite monsters, bosses, Treasure Goblins, and completed World Events. Rarely, you may also get Legendaries as quest rewards. While playing post-campaign endgame content from Level 50 onwards, Legendaries will drop much more frequently in activities like Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides.
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Additionally, you can also earn Legendary Aspects and add them to a collection called the Codex of Power by completing the dungeons located throughout Sanctuary (each dungeon has one Aspect for players to acquire). Once an Aspect is in your Codex of Power, you can visit Occultist vendors in major settlements to imprint the Aspect onto a Rare item, essentially turning it into a Legendary via crafting. Note that Occultists can also extract Aspects from randomly dropped Legendaries, a process that makes them available for imprinting. Aspects from your Codex of Power can be used to imprint items indefinitely (provided you have enough Veiled Crystals), but Aspects extracted from drops in the wild can only be used once.
Note that some Aspects are exclusively available from random Legendary drops, and can't be added to the Codex of Power (the tables in the sections below show which Aspects these are). Also, Legendary drops may have stronger versions of Aspects than what you can get from imprints, so be on the lookout for particularly high bonuses.
Diablo 4: What are the best Legendary Aspects?
Since developer Blizzard has put a lot of effort into creating tons of Aspects for players to experiment with, it's nigh impossible to try and pin down what the "best" Aspects are for each of the game's classes. In a broader sense, though, we recommend finding and using Aspects that directly synergize with the core elements of the build you're using. For example, if you're playing a Whirlwind Barbarian that uses lots of shout buffs, you'll likely be best off using Aspects like the Bold Chieftain's Aspect, the Aspect of Ancestral Echoes, the Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind, or the Aspect of the Dire Whirlwind.
While you could opt to use Aspects that cover some of your build's weaknesses, it's generally better to double down on your specializations. As you get comfortable with your setup and learn how to mitigate its drawbacks with things like timing and positioning, you'll get a lot more value out of Aspects that amplify your build's strongest skills.
Diablo 4: All Generic Aspects and their locations
These Aspects can be used by any class, and generally provide bonuses to universal stats, skill categories, status effects, and other types of mechanics that every class interacts with.
Diablo 4: All Barbarian Aspects and their locations
These Aspects can only be used by the tanky and aggressive Barbarian class. Most of the bonuses they offer improve the effectiveness of the class' core skills, raise your tankiness and resilience, enhance shouts, or provide buffs that trigger off of the Barbarian's weapon swapping Arsenal system.
Diablo 4: All Rogue Aspects and their locations
More so than any other class, Diablo 4's Rogue often relies on stealth, agile movement, and layer upon layer of status effects to succeed on the battlefield. As such, the majority of the class' Aspects elevate these elements of the Rogue's kit.
Diablo 4: All Sorcerer Aspects and their locations
Sorcerers are masters of high-damage ranged attacks, so most of their Aspects are centered around raising the power of their magic and improving the class' ability to generate the Mana needed to use it.
Diablo 4: All Necromancer Aspects and their locations
These Aspects are exclusive to the Necromancer class. The enhancements they offer are mostly for the Necromancer's unique mechanics such as Corpses and skeleton summons.
Diablo 4: All Druid Aspects and their locations
The Druid is arguably the most versatile Diablo 4 class, and as a result, their Aspects are the most diverse. Whether you want to buff or alter the effects of your shapeshifting abilities, empower your animal companions, improve your nature magic, or strengthen your poison damage, there are Druid Aspects that you'll find useful.
Diablo 4 is slated to fully launch on June 6, 2023 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, Windows PC, PS5, and PS4, with Early Access available to fans that purchase the Digital Deluxe or Ultimate Edition. It's one of the best Xbox games for fans of dungeon crawlers and hack-and-slash combat, and we've been having an absolute blast with it.
